Lecture focuses on role of women in Middle East reforms

FREDERICK, Md.—The role of women in advancing the changes that are occurring in the Middle East is the topic of a lecture Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Whitaker Campus Center at Hood College.

A book signing will follow the lecture.

Women, Islam and Reform in the Middle East is the inaugural Shirley Conner Hardinge '44 International Lecture, which brings international scholars to Hood annually to lecture on an array of global perspectives, and the second of three events in the College’s Gender, Conflict and Globalization lecture series.

Isobel Coleman, D.Phil., is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, where she directs the council's civil society, markets and democracy initiative and the women and foreign policy program. She will discuss how Muslim activists—men and women alike—are fighting back with progressive interpretations of Islam to create economic, political and educational opportunities for women. She argues that the success of these efforts will not only transform the Middle East but also will bring greater stability and prosperity to the region.

Coleman is the author and co-author of numerous publications, including Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President and Strategic Foreign Assistance:
Civil Society in International Security. Her writings have appeared in numerous international journals, newspapers and professional magazines, and she is a frequent speaker at academic, business and policy conferences.

The lecture is sponsored by the College’s Center for Global Studies.

The final event in this series is a lecture March 26 at 7:30 p.m. by Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

For more information, contact Paige Eager, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, at eager@hood.edu.

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Hood College prepares students to excel in meeting the personal, professional and global challenges of the future. Hood is committed to the integration of the liberal arts, the professions and technology, to the exploration of values, a sense of community and to the preparation of students for lives of responsibility, leadership and service.